ENG-1999 — Page 339

TRAVEL AND TOURISM

the Discover Hong Kong banner, urged potential visitors to discover new elements in five key areas: heritage, sightseeing, cuisine, shopping and events.

An additional wave of tactical marketing for late 1999 and early 2000 brought extensive overseas promotion of Hong Kong's Millennium Celebrations under the theme title of The Dragon's Spirit. More than 120 events during the millennium promotion period from November to May 2000 were identified and promoted

overseas.

To raise awareness of Hong Kong's excellent cruise hub facilities, the HKTA worked with overseas agents to promote fly/cruise packages, offered support to international cruise operators in planning itineraries and attended major cruise trade shows to promote Hong Kong as a cruise hub.

As part of an integrated approach, the HKTA's Internet home pages were redesigned and updated frequently. The City of Life web site, which attracts around 23 million visits every month and has won many international awards, contributes considerably to the HKTA's emphasis on direct-to-consumer marketing.

Joint promotions with the Mainland and other complementary destinations in Asia were stepped up during the year, both for trade shows and tactical consumer campaigns. A special initiative in the Mainland was the HKTA's participation in the Kunming International Horticultural Exposition, from May to October.

Regular joint promotions with travel industry partners, such as hotels and airlines, were also conducted in key markets, including the Mainland, South-East Asia, Taiwan and Japan. The HKTA continued to organise 'Contract Hong Kong' events for local hoteliers and travel agents in order for them to meet buyers from

overseas.

In 1999, the HKTA organised various familiarisation programmes, for more than 2 500 members of the travel trade and media guests visiting Hong Kong.

The Events Capital of Asia

Throughout 1999, the HKTA organised a series of new events and promoted those already well established, to market Hong Kong as a year-round travel destination with an extensive range of top-quality events justifying the Special Administrative Region's reputation as the 'Events Capital of Asia'.

The HKTA again organised the Chinese New Year Parade, on the first day of the Lunar New Year. In June, the annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival International Races, organised in conjunction with the Provisional Regional Council, took place at Sha Tin, attracting some 27 overseas teams and 90 local teams.

To help promote Hong Kong's image as the 'Events Capital of Asia', the Government provided the HKTA with a $100 million loan fund to set up the International Events Fund (IEF). This fund provides seed money to support the staging of major international events that could attract additional visitors and increase tourism receipts. A Steering Committee, administered by the HKTA and comprising representatives from the public and private sectors, was established to oversee the fund. Since its establishment, 11 major events have been approved for IEF support.

To further support the objective, the Government leased the former Tamar site, at Admiralty on Hong Kong Island. to the HKTA for the period September 1998 to

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